Telescopic conveyors are known in practice for a large number of application fields. They may be constructed in particular as telescopic belt conveyors but, for example, also as telescopic roller conveyors.
A telescopic conveyor enables the bridging of variable distances on a transport path of unit loads. The telescopic conveyor may to this end comprise a carrier frame and at least one telescopic segment which is supported in the carrier frame so as to be able to be moved in a telescope-like manner. In a telescopic conveyor, it is then possible to fit a conveyor belt by means of redirection rollers, tension rollers and drive rollers to the carrier frame and the telescopic segments in such a manner that, with different deployment stages of the telescopic segments, there is in each case a continuous, tensioned and drivable transport belt available for transporting unit loads. A corresponding arrangement is described, for example, in the Patent Specification DE 10 2004 063 704 B4.
Unit loads may, for example, be provided from a sorting installation at a fixed location in order to be moved onto the loading area of a lorry or a trailer. Even if the access to the loading area is located substantially directly in front of a discharge location of the sorting installation, there may be slight differences in the distance between the discharge location and the loading area. Furthermore, regions further towards the back generally have to be loaded first on the loading area and then regions further towards the front. The same applies accordingly when unit loads are intended to be unloaded from the loading area of a lorry or trailer and supplied to a fixed conveying arrangement for further transport. Owing to the telescopic properties of a telescopic conveyor, such different distances can be bridged with a single telescopic conveyor. Using telescopic conveyors, consequently, the conveying of unit loads can be accelerated and the operators may be under less strain during loading and unloading operations.